Deo Proximo

Hear the silence

The Hymn of the Pearl.

The Hymn of the Pearl is from the apocraphal Acts of Thomas. This poem is very Gnostic in nature and it is about a boy who is sent from the "king of kings" to Egypt to retrieve a pearl from a serpent. The boy is seduced by the Egyptians and forgets about the place he is from and what his mission is. When a letter is sent from the king of kings to the boy, he remembers where he is from and he retrieves the pearl from the serpent and leaves Egypt. This poem is a metaphor for the soul being exiled from the Kingdom of Heaven and its later redemption.

The serpent is an obvious reference to the serpent from the Book of Genesis and is usually portrayed as the ourbourus in many cultures. It represents time and cycles of the physical world and the pearl represents the work, or the spiritual development of one's life. The sleep of this life prevents the boy from taking the pearl and returning to the place he came from.

The Nag Hammadi Library uses the pearl as a metaphor, like The Hymn of the Pearl. The Gospel of Philip (62:15), "When the pearl is cast down into the mud it becomes greatly despised, nor if it is anointed with balsam oil will it become more precious. But it always has value in the eyes of its owner. Compare the sons of God, wherever they may be. They still have value in the eyes of their father."

The music video called "Lift me up", by Moby, is about the pearl as a metaphor for the soul and he wants to be lifted up to a higher world.

"When I was a little child,
and dwelling in my kingdom,

in my father's house, and was content with the wealth and the
luxuries of my nourishers,

from the East, our home, (The East is where the Sun rises and it is this boy's, or the soul's, home).
my parents equipped me (and) sent me forth;

and of the wealth of our treasury
they took abundantly, (and) tied up for me a load

large and (yet) light, which I myself could carry,

gold of Beth-Ellaya,
and silver of Gazak the great,

and rubies of India,
and agates from Beth-Kashan,

and they furnished me with the adamant,
which can crush iron.

And they took off from me the glittering robe,
which in their affection they made for me,

and the purple toga,
which was measured (and) woven to my stature.

And they made a compact with me,
and wrote it in my heart, that it might not be forgotten: